Bopanna-Mergea go down in five-setter thriller in semi-finals

Rohan Bopanna’s bid to enter his maiden Wimbledon doubles <g data-gr-id="36">final</g> came to a disappointing end as he along with his Romanian partner Florin <g data-gr-id="21">Mergea</g> lost a marathon five-setter against <g data-gr-id="22">fourth seeded</g> Dutch-Romanian pair of <g data-gr-id="23">Jean Julien</g>-Rojer and Horia Tecau. Julien-Rojer and Tecau won 4-6 6-2 6-3 4-6 13-11 in a contest that went on for three hours and 23 minutes.

For Bopanna, it was yet again a case of being so near yet so far after he lost another marathon five-setter semi-final back in 2013. Ironically, his partner was Julien-Rojer, who ended up on the winning side on <g data-gr-id="30">Thursday .</g>

The final set turned out to be a battle of patience for both pairs as they held their respective services for 23 games. It was in the 24th game of the fifth set that the Indo-Romanian pair was broken and the match ended there itself.

The match started with Bopanna being broken in the very first game but <g data-gr-id="24">Mergea’s</g> good returns saw them break back. The pair also broke <g data-gr-id="25">Tecau</g> to take the first set at 6-4.

In the second set, it was the turn of the Dutch-Romanian pair to get a double break and win the set easily by <g data-gr-id="26">6-2</g> margin. The third set went nearly on similar lines as Bopanna-<g data-gr-id="20">Mergea</g> were broken once and lost the set at 3-6.